This invention relates to hair treating compositions for permanent waving or straightening the hair and more specifically relates to improved compositions containing a quaternary ammonium salt of mink oil fatty acids as the conditioning agent.
It is known that the configuration of hair can be altered permanently from straight to curled, or from curled to straight, for example, by subjecting the hair to the action of a reducing lotion which relaxes the hair by rupturing the disulfide bonds in the keratin of the hair to produce free sulfhydryl groups, followed by setting the hair in a desired configuration and then by oxidizing, or neutralizing, the hair to recreate disulfide bonds which hold the hair in the desired configuration.
Over the years, a number of reducing agents have been proposed and used in the permanent waving or straightening of hair. The agents most used today are the thioglycolates, such as ammonium thioglycolate, which are preferred because of their effectiveness in spite of the fact that they may have an irritant effect on the scalp and surrounding skin.
Sulfite and bisulfite salts, such as sodium and ammonium sulfites and bisulfites, are known to be useful as relaxing agents in hair waving or straightening and are known to be generally less irritating than the thioglycolates, but are not used as frequently as the thioglycolates because they are not sufficiently reliable to impart and hold a desired hair style in hair which is resistant to permanent waving.
Another problem in permanent waving or straightening is that the treatment frequently leaves the hair in a dry and brittle state. In addition, hair is frequently exposed to other conditions, such as sunlight, chlorinated water and harsh detergents, which tend to embrittle the hair. It is desired that a hair waving or straightening treatment not only impart a stable hair style, but also leave the hair with improved appearance, feel, condition, and ease of combing. The latter is of even greater importance for those users of hair waving or straightening treatments who also color their hair. Thus, there is a need for improved hair waving or straightening compositions which additionally condition the hair during the waving or straightening process and leave the hair soft and manageable.
In the past, hair conditioning has usually been achieved by the application of suitable conditioning products after the completion of the hair waving or conditioning process, either in a hair rinse product or in the setting of the final coiffure. These materials, when water soluble, are removed by subsequent shampooing or rinsing and their effect is thus short-lived.
Water insoluble materials have been used, particularly in the final hair set, but these require the use of organic solvents both in their application and in their removal; and organic solvents tend to extract natural constituents from the hair.
A water soluble mink oil fatty acid based quaternary ammonium salt, sold under the mark CERAPHYL 65 by Van Dyk Company, Inc., Bellville, N.J., has been known to act as a hair and skin conditioner and is useful in shampoos and in post-shampoo conditioners. It has not been used or suggested as a component of a hair reducing lotion. Nor was there any reason to believe that its conditioning action would carry through from the reducing step to the final finished coiffure because most quaternary salt hair conditioners are removed when the hair is rinsed and are not carried through to the finished coiffure if applied in the reducing lotion.